Fedor vs Barnett for Affliction if it happens?

Fedor Emelianenko and Josh Barnett will face off in August this year on a third Affliction mixed martial arts show, it has been claimed.

The report comes from the Russian-language website of M-1 Global, which manages Emelianenko and has a partnership agreement with Affliction Entertainment, the division of the clothing company responsible for its MMA shows.

“According to initial reports, the long-awaited match between WAMMA Heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko of Russia and American fighter Josh Barnett will be held on the third event of M-1 Global & Affliction, which is scheduled for early August this year,” a news item on the site states today.

M-1 Global is run by Fedor’s management which means what goes there has a pretty good chance of going down. Plus, M-1 and Affliction just spent the week in Japan being best friends forever, so it would be surprising if this was another left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing – something Affliction is pretty infamous for.

Still, I’m not about to get too hyped. Since 2007 Josh Barnett hasn’t exactly seemed super-excited to fight Fedor. I don’t really know what happened but something did … he went from the guy who was literally chasing the Fed to the guy who needs some sort of miracle sign from God to take the fight. Also, relying on Affliction getting a third card off the ground is a pretty huge ‘maybe’ as well. Long story short, there’s a reason everyone is reporting this news but also adding a shovel full of doubt to the mix.